Virtual reality has a space problem. The most compelling immersive experiences often require dedicated rooms, expensive equipment and enough time for visitors to move through an environment safely. For operators, that creates a difficult equation: how do you deliver a memorable experience to more people without expanding the venue or compromising immersion?

Canadian creative technology studio Hololabs Studio is addressing this challenge with Atrium, a modular attraction format introduced at IAAPA Expo Europe in London in September 2026. Its concept combines physical scenery, mixed reality, free-roam VR and motion-based cinema in a coordinated, multi-room experience. The demonstration, called Abyss MR, uses a science-fiction submarine setting to show how the format could work.

Rather than placing visitors directly into a completely virtual environment, the experience begins in a physical set. Real walls, props and architectural details establish the scene, while a headset adds digital elements. Visitors then move into a larger virtual world before reaching a cinematic finale with motion seats.

The sequence illustrates a broader shift in location-based entertainment: physical space is becoming part of the storytelling system, not simply a room in which VR happens. The sets establish context, the virtual environment expands what can be experienced, and the final room provides a shared conclusion. IAAPA’s official project description outlines this three-stage demonstration.

Designing for capacity, not just immersion

Atrium’s proposed layout occupies approximately 176 square metres, measuring 8 by 22 metres, and divides the experience into four rooms. Groups enter at ten-minute intervals, while the free-roam VR segment lasts about twenty minutes. Two VR rooms therefore operate in parallel, allowing different groups to progress through the attraction simultaneously.

In the proposed operating model, four groups can occupy different stages of the experience at once. A complete visit takes approximately forty minutes.

This is the central idea behind Atrium: increasing visitor throughput through spatial planning rather than simply shortening the experience. The approach resembles the operational logic of a theme-park dark ride, where guests move through a sequence of scenes while the attraction continues to receive new groups.

The distinction matters because free-roam VR venues often face a trade-off between session duration, available floor space and the number of visitors they can accommodate. Hololabs is attempting to design those constraints into the format from the beginning, rather than treating them as operational problems to solve after production. Blooloop examined the model in its October 2026 coverage.

The physical venue becomes part of the product

For immersive creators, this approach changes the production brief. A successful experience must work as a narrative, but also as a physical operation. Designers must consider group movement, room transitions, accessibility, safety, equipment preparation and how one session hands over to the next.

The format could also allow the same infrastructure to host different stories, from action-adventure to cultural experiences. That creates potential opportunities for collaborations between XR studios, intellectual-property owners and venue operators.

However, Atrium remains a proposed format demonstrated at an industry trade show. Public information does not yet establish its long-term commercial performance or confirm a network of operating venues using the complete system.

That distinction is important: an efficient floor plan is not proof of profitability. Actual results will depend on construction costs, staffing, maintenance, ticket prices, visitor demand and repeat attendance.

Hololabs’ experiment nevertheless raises a question relevant to the wider XR industry: what if the next step for immersive entertainment depends as much on designing better physical spaces as on developing better headsets?

The future of location-based VR may not require bigger venues. It may require spaces designed from the outset to make physical and virtual worlds work together.